All Hail the Great God Mickey: Difference between revisions

In the future, long after our current society has [[The End of the World Asas We Know It|crumbled into nothing,]] mankind survives. They have been reduced to tribal beings, clinging to the last throes of survival. But all is not lost for humanity, for this tribe has discovered the God of the new world. He shall lead their tribe out of the darkness. He shall bring humanity back to what it once was. Hey... wait... is that [[Abraham Lincoln]] they're worshipping?

It should be noted that this is a separate trope from [[Cargo Cult]], though the two can overlap. A [[Cargo Cult]] is when an object is interpreted as a sign of the gods or a god itself. [['''All Hail the Great God Mickey]]''' is similar, but occurs [[After the End]], when the remnants of a past society are mistaken for a sign of the gods. Due to cultural drift, this trope may also be found attached to [[Days of Future Past]].

== ComicsComic Books ==

* First Comics, a comic company back in the 80s1980s, was fond of this. In both ''Grimjack'' and ''Nexus'' there are references to a "St. Elvis".

* At one point in ''[[Enemy Mine (Filmfilm)|Enemy Mine]]'', Davidge quotes [[Mickey Mouse]], and the alien Jeriba Shigan assumes the cartoon character is actually a "great Earthman teacher," which Davidge does not correct. This leads to a hilarious bit during a later argument, when Jerry thinks he's deeply insulting Davidge's beliefs by calling Mickey Mouse "one big, stupid ''DOPE!''"

* In ''[[Battlefield Earth (Filmfilm)|Battlefield Earth]]'', the few surviving humans believed that advertising statues left from before the Psychlo's invasion of Earth were gods that had been [[Taken for Granite|turned into stone]] as punishment for falling in love with mortal women.

** The partial [[Trope Namer]] is [[The Nostalgia Critic (Web Video)|The Nostalgia Critic]]'s review of the film:

{{quote| '''Tribesman''': ''[On a bunch of mall manequins]'' Look at these poor bastards, though. They really, ''really'' angered the gods!<br />

** Also [[Lampshaded]] by [[RifftraxRiff Trax]], as Kevin notes that while the Egyptians left the pyramids, the Incans left behind Machu Picchu, America left behind the giant fiberglass bunny on the 6th green of the local Putt-Putt.

* ''[[Motel of the Mysteries (Literature)|Motel of the Mysteries]]'' is an illustrated gag "archeological report" on relics found in a long-ago hotel room, as written up by future archeologists with a ''very'' [[Future Imperfect]] understanding of our era. One of their ongoing debates is about which "ancient altar" was the more revered: the television or the toilet.

* Aldous Huxley's ''[[Brave New World (Literaturenovel)|Brave New World]]'' has its future [[Dystopia|dystopiandystopia]]n society view Henry T. Ford as a God-like figure (to the point where [[Future Slang|Ford's name]] is used in phrases where "God" would have been used originally). It's because he [[Machine Worship|invented the system of production lines]] that they use to produce everything ([[Designer Babies|including children]]).

* In an original ''[[Star Trek: theThe Original Series (TV)|Star Trek the Original Series]]'' episode on a world where nuclear war destroyed civilization and the survivors descendants are divided into Yangs (Yanks) and Coms (Communists) the Yangs worship the Constitution.

* In ''[[Fallout New Vegas (Video Game)|Fallout: New Vegas]]'', the Kings became a gang of [[Elvis Impersonator|Elvis Impersonators]]s. After finding a school filled with memorabilia, instructions on how to act like him, and a metric ton of hair gel, they figured it must be a place of worship, and that they'd keep his memory alive. [[From a Certain Point of View|They're not wrong, per se...]]

* That's not the first time ''[[Fallout (Video Game)|Fallout]]'' has misconstrued pre-war information as some kind of religion. In the ''[[Fallout 3 (Video Game)|Fallout 3]]'' DLC "The Pitt", your reward for [[Guide Dang It|finding all 100 ingots]] in the steelyard is [[And Your Reward Is Clothes|a suit of power armor]]. While it resembles [[Big Bad|Ashur's]] own suit, Everett mentions that some of the local tribals fashioned this power armor to resemble their "gods". Although the colors are faded, the armor is clearly decked out in the black and yellow colors of the [[American Football|Pittsburgh Steelers]]. Ashur's own armor has an identical color scheme, so it's possible he's simply exploiting local superstitions to appear as a "god".

* Reverend Theo Forbius, resident Chaplain for Tagon's Toughs in ''[[Schlock Mercenary (Webcomic)|Schlock Mercenary]]'', refers to '[[Spider -Man|The Gospel of Uncle Benjamin]]' when confronted with the quote ''"With great power comes great responsibility"'' and [[He -Man and Thethe Masters of Thethe Universe (Animation)|Greyskull's Power]] as part of an exorcism rite (the first time was in a dream sequence, but the second was a direct reference of his own).

* The lemonade cult of [[Romantically Apocalyptic (Webcomic)|Romantically Apocalyptic]].

* In ''[[Nineteen Eighty Three1983: Doomsday (Literature)|Nineteen Eighty Three Doomsday]]'', a minority of people in the [http://althistory.wikia.com/wiki/Republic_of_Lincoln_%281983:_Doomsday%29# Republic of Lincoln] seem to worship Abraham Lincoln as a deity. However normal circumstances that bring this about are subverted: the cult seemed to have formed because "the people are desperate for any piece of old America, no matter how small."

* This trope is often cited by archaeologists to discourage their colleagues from jumping to conclusions about the meanings or uses of artifacts and buildings -- forbuildings—for example, the archaeologists of 10,000 years in the future might see the Statue of Liberty as a sun/fire goddess because of the torch she holds and the "rays" coming from her head.

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130504154345/http://www.drabuzzi.com/elvis_the_divine This] website.

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20190911070856/http://churchofspongebob.tripod.com/ The church of Spongebob Squarepants] and [httphttps://wwwweb.archive.org/web/20150922000803/http://thechurchofgoogle.org/ the church of Google].